Childish
by PanicMoon15
Summary: Justine was always called 'childish', but maybe now that wasn't so bad she had someone to be childish with. iJustine/ Fwiz Justine/Ryan


#13

Childish

She wasn't like most twenty-eight year olds. Justine didn't have a 9-5 job, she ran around in front of a camera, her blood stream saturated with caffeine from endless cups of coffee and cans of energy drinks, her mind thinking about a hundred things at once. She couldn't cook, her apartment was pretty messy, and she had an abundance of tie-dyed clothes. On more than one occasion she had been called childish, a few times as a complement, but mostly as an insult which she quickly brushed off. Justine _could_ act like an adult though; she could pay bills, and go to meetings and talk with an extended vocabulary when it was necessary. Really, she thought of herself as an average twenty-eight year old, that was until she really looked around herself at the other women out there; her friends were just so different.

Collette Butler, or Katilette as she was most commonly known on the internet was twenty-nine, only a year or so older than herself, a good friend and a great person to be around. On more than one occasion, she and Justine had acted like kids in plain view of and behind the camera. They were very similar, giggling at stupid jokes and dancing to Justin Bieber; that was until Justine was reminded that Collette didn't act like that all of the time. She had four children, a husband of nine years, a house, a company, rent and a mortgage. Sometimes it disheartened Justine, reminded her that maybe all those haters were right. She _was_ childish, she _should_ start acting like an adult, and she _couldn't _be like this for the rest of her life.

"You're such a kid" Ryan had said on the first day she had met him.

"I'm not" she had argued, having sudden flashbacks to defending herself to the cruel kids in high school. Justine was rather proud of her thick skin.

"No, no. Don't take it like that. I like that you don't care what people think" apparently that thick skin hadn't been necessary around this new person.

"Really?" she smiled, jumping down from the bouncy castle which had been placed on Venice Beach for the children.

"Yeah. I wish more people were like you, Justine" he admitted, helping her down and holding her hand for just a moment longer than was necessary. She didn't complain. Their friends had long since left them, Justine causing the whole group some unwanted embarrassment as she waited in line with the six year olds.

"I wish more people were like me, too" They walked along the stretch of beach, laughing at each other's jokes and telling stories of childish times past, until eventually he had asked her.

"Hey, erm, do you want to maybe go get some coffee or…you know not, if you're busy…but then again, if you want to…"

"Are, are you asking me out?" Justine smiled. She needed to clarify this. Dates had been seldom for quite a while, even that thing she had with Toby had just sort of happened, he had never asked her on a date.

He stuttered at her abruptness "Well, I, erm, yes. Yes I am."

"Okay then" she smiled.

"What?"

"I'll go on a date with you, Ryan" a pinkish tinge crept up her face as Justine looked away, hoping that the quickly dimming light of the sun had hidden it.

"Awesome"

And so they had gone out on a date, the next day in fact. He had taken her to Coffee Bean, or rather they had met there, but Ryan had insisted on paying (very gentlemanly she had noted) and Justine had thought for a brief moment if this was what it was like to be an adult, going on dates, having coffee, just talking about normal things with a normal guy…that theory had lasted all of five minutes. Justine didn't want to talk about normal things with a normal guy; she wanted to talk about video games and internet memes and Lego and Steve Jobs and tie dye, which was good, because Ryan wasn't a normal guy and he wanted to talk about all of those things too.

Three weeks later they were both sat on the floor of her living room, pirates of the Caribbean Lego spread around them. Even with Toby, after a few days of constant hanging out they had needed a break from each other, but somehow this thing she had going with Ryan wasn't the same. Justine had barely spent any time with anyone else than him in the past three weeks, they had learned so much about each other, just talking while doing various childish things.

"Hey" Justine put down the pieces of plastic bricks she was trying to force together and turned to him "When you come over tomorrow, how about we do some tie-dye" she hadn't even bothered to ask him if he was coming over, they had at some point, come to this silent agreement that he would turn up at her apartment every day, and they would just hang out. Her sisters said it was weird, like during the summer when they were kids and all day everyday they would play with their friends at each other's houses. Justine told them to kindly 'Get lost', while she continued to have this agreement with her boyfriend.

Boyfriend; that felt odd to say, well, to think. She hadn't even uttered the word in about six months, but here she was, three weeks into a relationship and already dubbing this person as 'her boyfriend'. It felt right though, why shouldn't he be her boyfriend? When she was fifteen, a boy in her English class had asked her to be his girlfriend four days into the school year and she had said yes, why should this be any different? _Because you're not fifteen anymore._ A voice sounding suspiciously like her sister whispered in the back of her mind.

Two months went by and Justine was back in Pittsburgh. She had come back to see her family, but at some point during her visit had been roped in to going out for lunch with some of the girls she knew from high school. Not necessarily people she didn't like, but not necessarily her friends either. Justine looked around the table of the five women, all her age. Four of them were married; three with children, and the other was engaged (for the third time from what her sisters had told her, though she didn't bring that up).

"So remind me again, Justine, what is it you do for a living?" one of them asked, the one with two children.

"I make videos on the internet" she proclaimed proudly, taking great joy in the look if disgust on one of the women's faces. She didn't even bother to defend herself, allowing the women to think what they wanted.

"And, is there a man in your life?" Justine nodded and the women squealed like prize pigs "Tell all, how did you meet? How long have you been seeing him? Are there wedding bells?"

"We met on the internet" the look of disgust returned to the woman's face "We've been dating about three months, give or take. No wedding bells, I can assure you."

"Oh, well. What does he do as his job?" another asked.

Justine grinned "Ryan works on the internet, too. We're well suited for each other because of our love for video games. In fact, you should come round tonight. My sister and I are going to play some Call of Duty on Xbox live"

"Isn't that a bit childish?"

Justine raised her eyebrows and began getting up out of her seat. "Nice seeing you, ladies, but I must go" she paused, looking back at them "And yes, it is _very _childish".

He had met her off the plane. A week away had shown Justine exactly how much she was falling for the man now pulling along her suitcase and holding her hand…that had been a bit of a shock. Falling for him? No. But as she watched Ryan throwing her case into the back of the car, asking if she had brought him anything back from her travels, Justine couldn't help but think that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she was in love with Ryan Wyatt.

"So? Did you?" he was asking her, almost shaking with anticipation.

"Sorry. What?" She hadn't been listening.

"Did you get me anything from Pittsburgh?" Ryan almost whined and Justine couldn't help but smile at how cute he was.

"Maybe" she teased, getting into the passenger side of his car. Ryan ran around and got into the other side.

"Please tell me what you got"

"You're acting like a kid"

"Yeah, I am. Now give me my present" Ryan demanded, tickling her ribs until she called for mercy in-between giggles.

"Fine, fine" Justine laughed, wiping tears away from her eyes. "Here" she pulled a small paper bag from her handbag and passed it to Ryan. He held it for a moment, shaking it and listening for any clue to what it might be. After realising his hearing was not allowing him to know what was inside the bag, he slowly opened it and peeked inside.

"Awesome" Ryan grinned, pulling out a plastic packet with a foam aeroplane kit inside and a small bag of 'Pittsburgh' candy. "You are the best girlfriend ever!"

Justine felt a rush at that. It was only a present worth a few dollars but she knew he'd love it, especially when he found out she had bought a plane for herself, too. Ryan tore his eyes away from the plane to pull Justine into a hug, and kiss her lovingly on the lips. "I love you"

She stared at him, her expression must have showed something other than the mixture of emotions she was feeling (panic, elation, and maybe a little bit of hunger) because Ryan was smiling at her with calm expectation; he would not have been looking at her like that if he could see the inside of her head. "I love you, too" had Ryan's expression not transformed into one of pure jubilation, Justine wouldn't have been certain that the words had left her mouth at all.

Then a sugar coated gummy sweet hit her on the forehead. "What was that for?" she feigned anger, attempting (and failing) to hide her giggles. "I just told you I love you for the first time"

"And I thought some candy would _sweeten_ the moment, get it? Sweeten, because its candy?"

"I get it" she shook her head, finding laughter escaping her body nonetheless "God, you're so childish"

"No, _we're _so childish"

And Justine couldn't really argue with that, as she threw the candy back at him. Her whole life she had been 'childish', and maybe that wasn't so bad. Maybe it was endearing, even if it _was_ only to Ryan, but that didn't matter. She would rather be childish with the love of her life every day, throwing candy and playing video games, than acting like an adult with lots of people she didn't really care about. So what if people thought she was weird? She _was _weird. Weird, childish and proud, with Ryan…and hopefully, she always would be.


End file.
